The British Columbia Institute of Technology maintains this Web site, which contains "a combination of text and graphics to introduce the field of civil and structural engineering." Several examples of important modern and historical developments in these fields are cited. The latter category includes discussions about the Roman aqueducts and Galileo's insights into engineering mechanics, while...

The US Patent and Trademark Office has been in existence since 1790, when it granted the first patent to one Samuel Hopkins of Philadelphia for "making pot and pearl ashes", which was a cleaning formula used in soapmaking. Over the past 215 years, millions of patents have been issued, and this creative site provides the original images from some of the original patent applications. Intended as a...